The Tagalong
by willielee
Summary: Due to certain events, Lightning is knocked unconscious and Hope is the only one who can help her. How is this going to work seeing as she scares him almost more than the monsters do. Takes place when Hope and Lightening separate from the others.
1. Eyes

**So here is the first part of a little Lightning and Hope fic I'm writing. Don't worry, its harmless. I actually do like this couple and think they could be really cute in a few years when Hope is older but right now they are just cute because he is the first person Lightning warms up to. Anyway, please tell me what you think; I appreciate any and all comments. **

Eyes

Her eyes were daggers. Glowing icy sharp daggers that reached down into the core of him and made him feel painfully vulnerable. Hope could tell by one of her trademark glances aimed his way that she could see right through him, right through his weak defenses to his even weaker self. If her eyes really were the blades they seemed to be, he would have been ripped to shreds hours ago.

Hope glanced ahead at her agile back, and her deadly gun blade, causing a shiver to ripple through his entire frame at the thought of how easily she could rip him to shreds. After all, her name _was_ Lightning. She was a soldier, a fearsome and fearless warrior; and he was nothing. He was just an ordinary city boy, hardly worth mentioning, who followed her around like a lost puppy. He hated how pathetic he felt chasing after her heels, but what else could he do? He needed her help. Thus he endured her icy stare and piercing silence.

Scrambling over a bolder that Lightning had leapt over with ease, Hope felt his feet slipping and a second later his back hit the hard ground and a groan escaped his lips. Up ahead, Lightning glanced coldly over her shoulder as Hope leapt to his feet and brushed the dirt from his pants.

She shook her head slowly, her lips a light line. "Are you _still_ following me?" She said in more of a statement than a question.

Hope scanned the rocky terrain with his vivid green eyes trying to avoid her gaze and seemed to shrink as her eyes burned into him. "I-I don't mean to bother you-"

"You are." She said, affirming his fear. "I could travel twice as fast without you tagging along. I told you to go back to the others; it seems you weren't listening so I will say it again. Go back _now_ unless you have a death wish."

He felt that slam as no more than scratch to his already beaten and bruised pride. When you have lost everything what else is there to hurt? He built up what courage was left in him and tried to hide the tremors in his voice.

"I'm sorry, but I can't go back. I need you, Lightning." He thought he saw her eyes widen ever so slightly and the corners of her lips twitch, but he couldn't be sure. She said nothing, just burned into him with her eyes. Encouraged by her silence he forced his eyes to meet hers. It took all his willpower to not look away. Staring into her pale blue eyes was like staring into the heart of a fire and soon his eyes began to water and he had to blink rapidly to clear his vision again. At that point he felt even more the fool and just spat out what was eating him. "Please, Lightning! I need your help! Please!" At that last word his voice cracked and made the poor boy's face turn scarlet.

Lightning raised one eyebrow and folded her arms across her chest as if to say, 'See. You are just a child.' And with that she turned on her heel and headed back up the steep slope.

Frustration taking over all rational thought, Hope spotted a rock near him on the ground and swung his leg at it, fueling all his anger into his foot. Sure enough, his boot made contact with the poor defenseless rock, and sent it soaring through the air. He watched it rise and fall, and only then did he realize it was heading right for Lightning's head. The blood drained from his face quicker than you can say chocobo and he yelled, "Light! Look out-" Then shut his eyes and winced.

She turned toward him at the last second and greeted the rock with her right temple. She mumbled either 'Useless Twerp' or 'Gawl that hurt' as she crumpled into a heap in the dirt.

The next few moments felt like years to Hope as he slowly opened his eyes and saw Lightning lying there lifelessly. What had he _done_!? He had just killed their fearless leader with a rock! How stupid could he get!?

"L-Lightning…?" he called out softly hoping to hear a groan or something in response. He ran to her side and fell to his knees. "Lighting… a-are you alive? Please, please, be alive…" Placing his hand close to her mouth and nose he tested to see if she was breathing. He felt a slight puff on his fingers and saw her chest rise and fall out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't help but smile at that. "You're alive!" He said with relief.

But now what?

He sat there and thought for a moment before deciding to try and wake her up. He called her name a couple of times, and when that didn't work he shook her roughly by the shoulders. "Wake up, Light!" He pleaded to the sleeping lioness. Her head lolled to the side and it was then Hope noticed the small gash where the rock had hit her head with a trail of crimson blood trailing down her cheek.

Tears of frustration swelled up in his eyes as he inspected the wound carefully. "I'm so sorry, Lightning…" He whispered as the first tear slid down his cheek. "I can't do anything right." As his tears began to pick up speed he unwound the scarf from around his neck and used it to wipe the blood off of her face. As he was dabbing at her cut it struck him how soft and warm her skin was. Then suddenly his eyes were scanning her face, her closed pale lids, her long eyelashes and pink lips. He had never really noticed how pretty she was because he felt he had to avert his gaze whenever she came near him. But she was pretty, beautiful even. Hope found himself smiling down at her as he wiped his tears with his free hand.

Feeling a sudden urgency to get her away from their open location and keep her safe, Hope quickly bandaged her head with his scarf and pulled himself to his feet. Grabbing her forearms with his hands he tried dragging her, but a twenty one year old woman of pure muscle doesn't budge very easily when she's limp. Trying a different method, Hope crouched down and pulled her slowly up on his back in a piggyback fashion. This was much easier except for the fact Hope had to walk completely bent in half to keep his balance.

He tried shifting her weight so she would be more secure, when he looked down and saw Lightning's long legs and realized his hands were holding her up by her thighs. His cheeks turned bright pink and continued to darken in color as he noted her slender arms hanging limp, her head resting against his with a tendril of rose colored hair tickling his nose, and the pressure of her on his back. He felt dizzy all of a sudden, but shook it off with a nervous gulp and a determined frown. "Don't worry, Lightning…somehow…somehow I will keep you safe." And with that he set off up the hill with Lightning on his back.

**Please tell me what you thought of this first little blip! Thanks for reading!**

**Random comment: When I first saw Hope I was expecting that I would hate him, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he became one of my favorite characters. I liked Lightning from the get go, thought I would like Snow but didn't. And hated Vanille pretty much since I heard her voice. Did anyone else have an experience like this with any of the characters?**


	2. Mothers

**Can I just say how awesome you reviewers are!? You are my heroes! Because of all you awesome reviewers here is part 2.**

Mothers

"Did you know I once had a dog named Steve? He used to chew on the sofa and my mom would yell so loud!" Hope laughed to himself. "Then one day he disappeared…mom said he ran away." His smile slowly faded. "I really miss Steve…" Then he felt the knot form in his throat again, like something was picking away at the scare on his heart. "I…miss my mom…"

For some reason Hope had started talking to Lightning as if she were actually aware of what was going on around her instead of the unconscious slump on his back. Perhaps it was the fact she was much easier to talk to when she wasn't conscious, or perhaps he was just getting lonely.

"What's your mom like, Light? Is she still alive?" He asked, watching her head bob against his shoulder as his imagination began to run wild. "I bet you and Serah look just like her. You have her hair color…and her eyes… I bet she took you and your sister to amusement parks on the weekends and bought you strawberry ice cream…" He smiled to himself at the thought of a young Lightning with an ice cream cone in her hand being dragged around an amusement park by her younger sister. "My mom used to take me to amusement parks and she would ride my favorite ride with me as many times as I wanted to, even if it was ten times in a row!" His eyes shined with the memory. "I only stopped going on the rides when I realized how sick she was feeling." He chuckled softly. "She wouldn't say anything until she was about to throw up because she saw how much fun I was having."

Lightning moaned in her sleep and shifted her weight to the left. Hope quickly adjusted his arms and bounced her higher up on his back as if he had done it a hundred times. "You know, Light, I really think she would have liked you…" He continued on. "Despite your cold silences and all that… She would've liked how strong and brave you are I bet... She always used to tell me to be strong and brave…" He came to a fork in the path and was contemplating on whether to go right or left when something caught his eye.

"Hey, you see that rock, Light?" Hope exclaimed, nodding his head in the direction as he struggled to keep Lightning on his back. "It looks like a behemoth!" He paused and squinted his eyes at the 'rock' suspiciously. "Maybe we should steer clear from over there _just_ to be safe…" He mumbled more to himself then to her.

"So I guess that means the left path it is!" He then side glanced at her uncertainly. "Don't tell me we need to take the right path. That rock could really be a behemoth for all we know! But for all _I_ know, the left path could be sending us in the wrong direction. So if you don't wake up now and tell me which way to go I'm just going to follow my gut, and my gut says behemoths could eat me for breakfast and I should avoid them at all costs. So what do you say?"

He bounced her softly as if that would wake her up and asked, "Any objections to going left?" Of course she didn't respond. "All right then, off we go!"

After walking down the path for awhile and chatting it up with Lightning about this and that, he reached a sharp incline. When he finally reached the top he was lightheaded and sweating profusely. His legs and arms ached from the extra weight and he gulped in the air greedily. "How--How about a--a rest, Light?" He asked between gasps. "See-see any good places to hide from the monsters?" As luck would have it, not far off he spotted a cave hidden slightly by some trees. "Look over there, Light! Jackpot!"

With a fresh surge of strength he walked quickly to the cave and gently lowered Lightning to the ground. He straightened her arms and legs, brushed the hair out of her eyes and took his gloves off before checking on her cut. It had seemed to stop bleeding so that was good.

His eyes fell to her face and he was suddenly transfixed by her features once again. Her pale skin seemed to glisten in the moonlight and he stared mesmerized as her rose colored hair fell across her cheeks in the slight breeze. His hand extended without his notice and traced the curve of her face with his finger. Her skin was soft, softer than he thought it would be. Softer than he could ever imagined it to be. How could someone who was so hard be so soft?

His stomach grumbled angrily at him, dispelling his thoughts and causing him to flinch his hand away from her face as if he had touched something extremely hot. He ran his fingers through his hair again as he thought about this food problem. What in the world was there to eat in the middle of nowhere? And then it hit him.

He shoved his fist into his pants pocket and pulled out a half melted candy bar. He peeled off the plastic wrappings and was about to take a big bite when he glanced down at Lightning and guilt washed over him. "Sorry, Light…" He said in a whisper. "You're probably hungry too, aren't you?" He broke a piece of the candy bar off and placed it on her lips. It balanced there for a moment then rolled down to her collar. He picked the piece up carefully and using his other hand he pressed on her chin to make her lower lip open. He then dropped the candy in her mouth and released her chin.

He nibbled on the candy bar watching her attentively to see if she made any reaction to food in her mouth. There was none. Hope pressed on her chin again to see the piece of the candy bar stuck between her teeth and lips. This wasn't going to work…what if she choked on it? He quickly flicked the piece out of her mouth and with a sigh, began to search his pockets for something else. When he found nothing he began to search Lightning's pockets as well.

After a few moments of careful searching, so as not to wake the sleeping lioness and make her think he was trying to run off with all her Gil or something, he found her water flask. He situated her head in his lap and placed the flask to her lips, carefully pouring the water into her mouth. He noted that she was swallowing but must have gotten ahead of himself because suddenly she was coughing and sputtering. He pulled the flask away and tipped her head to the side so the water could drain from her mouth and said, "Sorry, Light…Sorry. I'm sorry…I'm sorry for everything." He whispered as her face became more relaxed. "I'm sorry I followed you, sorry I was a burden to you, and that I kicked you in the head with a rock…" He winced again at the thought. "I'm _really_ sorry for that last one. All of this…is my fault." His voice faded off into the cave, swallowed up by the darkness. "At least…at least we haven't run into any monsters." He added, trying to cheer himself up.

Of course he spoke too soon, because just then five baby behemoths came waddling toward him from the depths of the cave, snapping their jaws and swishing their tails. He didn't know what to do. The behemoth babies would be right on top of them if he tried to escape with Lightning on his back. But he couldn't just leave Lightning, no, that was out of the question. It was his fault they were in this situation to begin with. "I promised I would keep you safe." He said stepping in front of Lightning in what he hoped was a protective and courageous manner and flicked his boomerang open. He squeezed his eyes shut then snapped them open with a determined stare, and then raised his boomerang over his head as he called a spell into his fingertips.

The battle was long and grueling on his own. In the end, the only reason he could come up with how he survived was because he managed to keep out of their reach as he was casting spells. Or maybe it was because he knew he wasn't fighting for himself, but for someone else, that made him so determined to live. Either way, the behemoths died slowly. And when the last one fell, so did Hope. With all his energy spent the only thing he could do was pull himself over the cold cave floor to Lightning's side and curl up next to her for warmth.

"I did it Light." He said as he faded in and out of sleep.

Lightning woke up when a strange sound suddenly hit her ears. Her eyes snapped open to see Hope cuddled up next to her with his head pillowed on her stomach and an arm draped over her. He had a trail of drool sliding down his cheek and was snoring lightly, but that wasn't the sound that had woken her.

Her expert eyes quickly surveyed her surroundings. She was in a dank cave with what looked like extra crispy behemoth babies not far off. She tried to shove Hope off of her but he just moaned and tightened his hold on her in his sleep. Then she heard the noise again.

It was a low rumbling sound that ended with a piercing screech. Lightning would know that sound anywhere.

She suddenly got to her feet, causing Hope's head to slam against the ground. She took a step back dizzily and touched her head where a splitting headache was resonating. Hope turned his head to her slightly then upon seeing her, scrambled into a cross legged sitting position.

"Y-your awake!" He exclaimed with a squeak of fear in his voice.

She pulled his scarf off her head and dropped it in his lap as she touched her cut gingerly. "Ha—yeah….about that—" Hope began but was cut off by Lightning's sharp voice.

"We can talk about that later. We need to go." She turned and started walking off toward the entrance of the cave but stopped when she realized he wasn't following her. She turned an icy gaze on him making him flinch. "I said we need to go!"

"But… why?" He asked confusedly.

She was next to him in a second and pulling him to his feet by his arm. But as soon as she let him go he took a wobbling step and slumped back down to the floor again. "What are you doing? We don't have time for games!" She yelled.

"I'm not playing…" Hope said looking down at his legs angrily. "My legs…They aren't working. I don't know why…maybe from all the walking yesterday."

She tried to pull him to his feet again. "We need to get out of here." She said. Just then she heard the sound again and snapped her head in the direction it came from. "It's getting closer…"

Hope's eyes were the size of dinner plates as he searched her tense face and held tightly to her arm for support. "What do you mean? What's getting closer? What was that sound?" The words flew from his mouth so rapidly they were barely recognizable. "Light! Tell me! What's going on?"

"We are standing in a behemoth's nest!" She said quietly as her eyes quickly flashed right and left.

"But…but I killed the babies." Hope said.

She furrowed her brows together and looked him right in the eye. "Yes, but where is the mother?" She paused. "I don't think she will be too happy to see us here with her dead babies."

The blood noticeably drained from Hope's face and he gripped her arm tighter. "Lightning, what do we do?" He asked her desperately, his voice cracking with fear.

"We get out of here." She stated and quickly swung him over her shoulder like a bag of potatoes.

"Hey! Wait a second, put me down!" Hope exclaimed, his voice muffled by her cape. She ignored his complaints and started running away from the cave as a large behemoth came crashing through the trees behind them and bellowed loudly. Hope craned his neck, and saw the behemoth's yellow eyes narrow in on him. "Hurry, Light! Run, run, run!" Hope wailed, hitting his fists against her back.

She cursed. She could easily handle the creature on her own but the fact that Hope would be laying there defenseless was too great of a risk.

Hope gave a small scream as the behemoth turned and started chasing after them. It's jaws opening and snapping shut hungrily. "Lightning! It's coming!"

She glanced behind her momentarily as she ran, it was coming up fast. "You just _had_ to get its attention, didn't you, Hope?" She said.

It was now only a few feet behind them and Hope could smell the rotting flesh of its last meal on it teeth. If something didn't happen they would be the creature's next meal! "Run faster!" He begged and then laid himself flat against her with his arms wrapped tightly around her middle and his face buried in the small of her back.

"I'm trying!" Lightning said with the slightest tinge of annoyance in her voice. She pumped her legs harder, feeling her muscles stretch and contract under her skin. As they came to a cliff face she tightened her hold on Hope's pants and the back of his knees and leapt into the air, propelling herself up the cliff from rock to rock until they were well out of reach of the behemoth below.

Once the monster had given up and wandered off, it took some serious convincing on Lightning's part to make Hope release his vice-like grip on her. And when he finally did, she set him down gently and folded her arms across her chest. "Are you okay?" She asked with her back to him.

"Y-Yeah…" He said, but she caught the slight hitch in his voice and turned around. He was nodding slowly, avoiding her gaze. His right hand held his left wrist, his L'Cie brand, and he rubbed at it methodically as if it would go away. She knelt at his side and cupped her hand under his chin and forced their eyes to meet and noticed large tears were rolling down his cheeks. "What's wrong?" She asked softly. "You are safe now."

He jerked his head away and frowned as he roughly brushed the tears away. "I'm sorry." He said sheepishly to the ground.

"For what?"

"For almost getting us killed!" He yelled with frustration. "It's all my fault! I'm too weak!"

"It's…not your fault. And you're not weak." She said, trying to comfort him but not quite knowing how. He raised his head slightly, giving her a small glimpse of his bright green eyes. "I saw those behemoths that you barbequed, only someone who was really brave…and strong, could beat five young behemoths all on their own."

The corners of his lips turned slightly upward then he frowned again. "But I decided to camp out in a behemoth nest… How stupid could I get?" He kicked up a small cloud of dust with his toe.

"Not stupid." She said. "Just inexperienced. You just need to learn more…and that's something that I could teach you."

His eyes shot up and met with hers. For a split second he was mesmerized by her eyes and the slight smile in her lips then he blinked and was in the present again. "Y-You mean…you will teach me?"

She stood up and extended her arm down to Hope to help him to his feet. "Of course I'm going to teach you. I can't have bait following me, now can I?"

"Then I can stay!?" He asked excitedly.

She nodded once. "That is…as long as you can keep up."

Hope looked down to his feet and took once hesitant step. This time he wobbled but didn't fall. He looked up at her uncertainly. "Don't worry." Lightning said, with her hand on his shoulder. "I think first you deserve a rest." She then walked off and sat down with her back against the cliff face. He slowly followed and lowered himself down next to her with a big smile on his face and said, "Thanks Lightning."

Lightning reached into her pocket for her water flask and upon pulling it out she realized it was almost empty. "What happened to my water?" She asked Hope, then remembering the cut on her forehead she turned to him with a steely glare. "And didn't you kick a rock at my head!?"

**Please Review!**

**Random Comment Cont.: I was happy to see all the replies to my question! Here is another question for any of you willing to answer, I can't take the relationship between Snow and Serah seriously can you? I mean she looks fifteen, tops. And the fact that she dresses like a school girl makes me just go "huh?" whenever she and Snow have a romantic moment. It could also be that Snow looks WAY old in my opinion. How old is he anyway? I mean it's nice that Square made a manly man of sorts; though he still kind of looks like a girl and with all his hero talk he is almost more annoying than Vanille. It all just seems weird to me…but maybe it's just me.**


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